Hindi

Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi, High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardised and sanskritised register of the Hindi-Urdu language based on the Khariboli dialect of Delhi and Western Uttar Pradesh. It is one of the official languages of the Republic of India.

Colloquial Standard Hindi is mutually intelligible with another register of Hindi-Urdu language called Urdu. Mutual intelligibility decreases in literary and specialized contexts which rely on educated vocabulary. Due to religious nationalism and communal tensions, speakers of both Hindi and Urdu frequently assert that they are distinct languages, despite the fact that native speakers generally cannot tell the colloquial languages apart. The combined population of Hindi-Urdu speakers is the fourth largest in the world. However, the number of native speakers of Standard Hindi is unclear.

The constitution, adopted in 1950, declares Hindi in the devanagari script as the official language of the Federal Government of India. It should be noted that English continues to be used as an Official language of India along with Hindi. Hindi is also enumerated as one of the twenty-two languages of the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India, which entitles it to representation on the Official Language Commission. The Constitution of India has stipulated the usage of Hindi and English to be the two languages of communication for the Central Government. Most of government documentation is prepared in three languages: English, Hindi, and the official state language. To correct a common misunderstanding, it should be noted that Hindi is not the National Language of India (India is a multi-lingual country; that is, it has multiple national languages as opposed to a single national language).